The start of the Lunar New Year is as good a time as any to consider the real State of Asian America. Judging from some recent events, it's not nearly as perfect as you Tiger Mom lovers out there might believe.

Oh sure, an Indian American, Satya Nadella, will become the new head of Microsoft.

But if you didn't notice from President Obama's State of the Union address last week, there was a lot more on class inequality than racial inequality, or anything else for that matter.

Perhaps it's the broad brush that covers us all, under the banner of that quickly outdated term, "the 99 percent."

That phrase must have too much truth in it, or the Orwellian rhetoricians wouldn't prefer the more general "income inequality."

What about "racial inequality?" That seems to have become a matter of "Don't ask, don't tell." The country has enough problems.

Even the president's usual comforting litany,in which he names every racial group and protected minority--you know, the list of "white, African American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, gay, lesbian, transgendered, disabled, etc...." ---all that was missing from this year's SOTU address.

The president did mention our ancestral home by region ("Asia-Pacific") and specifically said the words "the Philippines" and "the typhoon" in a way that connected with Filipino Americans.

But then he delivered this replacement line to remind us that our concerns are not totally forgotten.

Said the President: "We believe in the inherent dignity and equality of every human being, regardless of race or religion, creed or sexual orientation."

To that statement there was no joint applause or "standing-O."

Just silence.

So I guess all of us--left, right, and middle---can agree on something.

So why doesn't it all ring true to Randy Gener and his husband Steve Nisbet?

RANDY GENER UPDATE

Gener, 46, is scheduled to have his second brain surgery in two weeks on Wednesday.

An award-winning Filipino journalist and gay rights activist, Gener was beaten in New York City on Jan. 17 in a vicious attack initially investigated as a hate crime. But after an arrest last week of an African American suspect, Leighton Jennings of Queens, the charges were quickly downgraded.

Police took Jennings' story, reviewed surveillance video, and came to a conclusion. Commissioner Bill Bratton said near definitively: "It was not a bias crime." He prefers to call it "a tragic street altercation." Jennings was later arraigned on misdemeanor assault charges and released on his own recognizance.

"He was unable to watch Bruno or the game," responded Nisbet in an e-mail to me.

Nisbet said Gener was resting comfortably before surgery. "He is talking, but much of it lacks coherence," Nisbet wrote.

That's critical because the NYPD hasn't yet heard Gener's side of the story. A surveillance video doesn't tell all. Maybe Gener can recall if the physical beating came with an epithet---an "F" word. Any one will do.

One that rhymes with "gag it."

Even "Filipino" would work to make a case for a hate crime.

But Gener is in no condition to say.

Nisbet continues to work with the Anti-Violence Project in New York and remains "baffled by the reduction in charges."

In lieu of justice, he stays focused on Gener's recovery and asks for prayers.

"I am asking for all those who prayed for Randy the first time to return to prayer wherever they are between the hours of 1 p.m and 5 p.m. on the 5th," Nisbet said. "It worked the first time, and I believe it will again."

Health will be needed if the Gener story is to become a more reassuring example of the relative value of Asian Americans in our society.

For now, in terms of racial equality, our status?

It sure feels less than equal.

"SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE"

You can't have a Gener story unless you have the continued perpetration and acceptance of stereotypes.

Enter "Saturday Night Live," again.

I've written about SNL before and had hopes that the show would display greater sensitivity and diversity when it hired a new black cast member and black writers.

But I was wrong.

In last Saturday's opening monologue with Melissa McCarthy, we were subjected to this: